Jones rings bell at NYSE, reflects on Gold Glove

By Joey Nowak / MLB.com

NEW YORK -- When Adam Jones went to lift his 2012 Gold Glove trophy -- all 56 pounds of it -- at the New York Stock Exchange on Friday afternoon, he didn't feel much.

It wasn't all too physically challenging for him, and he wasn't overcome with emotion -- "I already got one, and I knew it was going to be heavy," he says -- but there was a bit of affirmation that came along with it.

"Just to get the second one means the first one wasn't a fluke," Jones said.

The Orioles center fielder was in New York on Friday to ring the closing bell on Wall Street -- along with executives from Rawlings, which sponsors the annual awards, and Jarden Corporation, of which Rawlings is a subsidiary -- and receive his award Friday night at the Plaza Hotel.

"This is really part of history, being here to ring the bell," said Jim Lillie, CEO of the Jarden Corporation.

Jones also won a Gold Glove in 2009 and was proud to be joined by teammates Matt Wieters and J.J. Hardy, who each won trophies this season.

"For any team to get multiple, you've got to play well," Jones said. "We've been trying to just play the game. We've improved as a team. It's a tribute to our coaches. We just went out there and made that a factor."

The Orioles were a surprise in the American League East, led by the trio of Gold Glovers and a sturdy pitching staff. Baltimore finished two games behind the Yankees in the division, beat the Rangers in the one-game Wild Card playoff, but fell to the Yankees in five games in their AL Division Series.

In manager Buck Showalter's second full season, the club achieved its first winning campaign and playoff berth since 1997.

"Everybody goes into Spring Training with the mindset, 'This is our year.' We had that same mindset," Jones said. "But we knew that the only way it'd be our year was if we did certain things. What we did was we competed. Every day, 162 games, 30 games of Spring Training, six games in the playoffs, every game everybody on that team gave it all they had. This was the first year I'm sure everybody on that team and in that organization went home and had a good night's sleep after the season."

With the season behind him, Jones said he's had some time to reflect on it and the career numbers he put up -- a career-best .287 average and 32 homers in the full 162 games -- but on Friday, his mind was occupied with a different variety of digits.

"The stock market is cool," he said, looking around the floor of the NYSE. "You see it on TV and in movies, guys running back and forth trading, but you come here and there's a lot of trading going on and money going back and forth. This room right here, I know there are a couple in the city, but this room shows us our money. This room right now shows how our country's doing and how each company's doing.

"I'm here today to send everybody home on a good note. They get the weekend, can sleep off the election and come back and do some more trading."

Joey Nowak is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter at @joeynowak. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.